Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a vehicle seat (vehicular seat) having anchors that accord with the ISO-FIX standard and can hold an ISO-FIX type child seat.
Description of the Related Art
The ISO-FIX standard is known as international standard of systems for holding child seats to vehicle seats. A vehicle seat is disclosed in, for example, JP 2002-104037A. The vehicle seat has anchors that accord with the ISO-FIX standard and can hold an ISO-FIX type child seat.
The child seat of ISO-FIX type has a pair of engagement members, i.e., left and right engaging members, at the rear part. The engagement members are engaged with anchors. The anchors may be arranged at, the rear edge of the seat cushion of a vehicle seat or at the lower edge of the seatback thereof.
An anchor is known, which has been formed by bending a wire member (or solid rod member). The anchor has a pair of side bars (i.e., left and right side bars) and a front bar. The left and right side bars extend forwards and parallel to each other. The front bar couples the upper (front) ends of the left and right side bars, and the anchor is substantially U-shaped as seen in the plan view.
The left and right engagement members are extending rearwards. Each engagement member has a bifurcated shape in side view and has, at the rear end, a groove. The front bar of each anchor may be engaged in the groove made in the rear end of the engagement member, to hold the child seat to the vehicle seat.
In most cases, the lower arm of each engagement member is shorter than the upper arm, and may smoothly come into engagement with the front bar of the associated anchor.
The anchors are provided at the rear edge of the seat cushion or the lower edge of the seatback. The seat cushion and the seatback are each composed of a frame (i.e., skeleton member, namely seat cushion frame or seatback frame), a pad made of foamed material such as urethane foam and covering the frame, and a trim cover covering the pad. Recesses in which the anchors are arranged are prepared on the pad. To provide the anchors at the rear edge of, for example, the seat cushion, the seat cushion frame is composed of left and right side frames and two connecting pipes, one connecting front ends of the side frames and the other connecting the rear ends of the side frames. Therefore, the seat cushion frame is a substantially rectangular frame as seen in plan view. The anchors are secured to the rear connecting pipe and arranged in the recesses of the pad at the rear edge of the seat cushion.
If the pad recesses and the anchors arranged in the pad recesses are seen, the outer appearance of the vehicle seat will be impaired. It is therefore proposed that bezels, each shaped like a box and having an opening at the upper end, should cover the pad recesses to hide the pad recesses.
JP 2002-104037A, for example, discloses a configuration in which bezels cover the pad recesses (or are fitted therein), covering the openings of the pad recesses with caps that can be opened and closed. In this configuration, flanges are used, the bezels cover the pad recesses (or be fitted therein), and the anchors extend into the pad recesses, respectively, through the holes (bottom holes) made in the bottom walls (bottoms or backs) of the bezels.
In this configuration, the bezels hide the pad recesses, and caps cover the pad recesses and hide the anchors held in the pad recesses if the child seat is not attached to the vehicle seat (in the normal state). Hence, the vehicle seat is not impaired in outer appearance. The caps of the bezels may be opened, exposing the pad recesses, and the engagement members of the child seat may be engaged with the front bars of the anchors held in the pad recesses exposed. In this case, the child seat is attached to the vehicle seat.
JP 2010-064636A discloses a configuration in which a pair of bezels, each having a rectangular flange and made of unwoven fabric impregnated with synthetic resin, are attached to the pad recesses, respectively. The left and right parts of the flange of each bezel are sewn at the edges of the trim cover located around the pad recess. The bezels are thereby held in the pad recesses. Each bezel has a slit made in the bottom wall, and the associated anchor projects into the associated bezel through the slit.
In this configuration, however, the anchors are seen on the bottom of the bezels because the bezels do not have caps. Nonetheless, since the bezels hide the pad recesses, the vehicle seat is not greatly impaired in outer appearance even while the child seat remains not attached to the vehicle seat.
Patent Literature 1: Japanese Patent unexamined Publication JP 2002-104037A
Patent Literature 2: Japanese Patent unexamined Publication JP 2010-064636A
In the configuration disclosed in JP 2002-104037A, the bezels each having a cap are made of relatively hard resin such as PP (polypropylene). Therefore, if the pad recesses are positioned at the occupant's seating position, the bezels each having the cap are fitted in the pad recesses and the caps cover the bezels while the child seat remains not attached to the vehicle seat, the caps will contact the buttocks or back of the occupant, possibly making the occupant feel uncomfortable.
If only fitted in the pad recesses, the bezels will hardly be secured in the pad recesses steadfast.
For example, wires for securing the bezels may be buried in the pad and stretched in the pad recesses, the holding strips to be held by these wires may be formed on the bottom walls of the bezels, and the holding strips may hold the wires to secure the bezels in the pad recesses. In this case, however, the configuration will be complicated, and its manufacturing cost will increase.
Further, if the pad recesses are left uncovered when the child seat is attached to the vehicle seat, the pad recesses will be seen through the holes (bottom holes) made in the bottom wall (or back) of the bezels. This inevitably impairs the outer appearance of the vehicle seat.
In the configuration disclosed in JP 2010-064636A, the flange of each bezel is sewn to the trim cover. Both bezels are therefore reliably attached to in the pad recesses. Moreover, since the bezels are made of unwoven fabric impregnated with synthetic resin, they would not make the occupant of the vehicle seat feel uncomfortable because the unwoven fabric is soft. The bezels indeed hide the pad recesses, not greatly impairing the outer appearance of the vehicle seat. However, since the bezels have no caps, the anchors are seen on the bottoms of the bezels if the child seat is not attached to the vehicle seat. This is undesirable in terms of the outer appearance. Further, the pad recesses are seen through the slits made in the bottom walls of the bezels, though the slits are smaller than the bottom holes in the configuration of JP 2002-104037A. This inevitably impairs the outer appearance of the vehicle seat.
In the known configurations described above, even if the bezels are attached to the pad recesses to hide the pad recesses, the pad recesses are seen through the bottom holes or slits made in the bottom walls of the bezels to guide the anchors. Consequently, the vehicle seats are impaired in terms of outer appearance.
An object of this invention according to one aspect of the embodiment is to provide a vehicle seat which is so configured that the pad recesses are never seen through the bottom holes or slits made, for the anchors, in the bottom walls of the bezels, and which is not impaired the outer appearance.